Guide to (Rogue Isles) Villain Stories Supplement
By
InfamousBrad,
Posted on: 2006-01-15 07:40 in Player Guides
I could've sworn in Dimitri's first arc, it mentions that the Facemaker studied under Dr. Vahz. The two were supposed to meet each other somewhere.
Then again, I haven't done that arc since beta, so...
I remember they were supposed to meet, that's the arc I was thinking of, but I thought she was a competitor, not a student. Next time I go through that arc, I'll check again.
I actually hadn't planned on moving this here until it got another gloss, so let me stick a disclaimer on it: this is a very rough first draft, done from memory. I've already spotted problems with it, not least of which is that I forgot to mention that the Devouring Earth are also all over northern Nerva.
you forgot spetznats who are hunting for krylov(sp?) both in the second krylov story arc, and once overheard by one of my characters who was in the wasteland side of mercy at the time.
I have seen banished pantheon minions harassing longbow over at their nerva island base, likely related to the portal mission arc in primera
Freakshow Raver: I love your knives. You know, you can use them on me later if ya want.
Knives of Artemis Raver: Right
Good guide, but you are missing ALOT of points.
You've skipped on the PvP zones altogether, missed Spetznaz and Shivans, and there are some bits and pieces you've skipped on.
I'll help:
Overview Correction: Just something quick to revise: Each island's governor takes control of the Commercial operations on the island. The Marshall is the Military Governor of the Island, and is entrusted in keeping the peace of the area.
Zones you Forgot (Excluding Sirens Call since it's not a RI zone so to speak):
Bloody Bay: Used to be a vital checkpoint in the slave trade to the Americas. However, after a massive slaughter of a Slave rebellion (from which it got the name), it saw alot of inactivity after 1865. In the late 80's, however, a meteor shower struck the island exclusively. The meteor shower consisted of 6 meteors that slammed into the island in various locations. The meteors then proceeded to irradiate the island, and from it spawned the Shivans. Longbow has a major base of operations on the island, both to act as a "peacekeeping" force to evacuate the few citizens still marooned on the island and to spite Arachnos by getting an easy checkpoint to further operations in West Rogue Isles.
Warburg: Not alot is known about Warburg so far, but this is what I know.
Prior to the Arachnos coup in the 50's, the island was largely unused... Apart from a massive 5th Collumn base underneath the island. From what I can understand, the Island was probably used as a secret muster point for units planning to attack Independance Port. However, after WW2 ended, the 5th Collumn poured their resources to create a missile facility on the island. If their plan would have worked, it would have caused an early Cuban Missile Crisis. However, in the 50's, Arachnos struck at the island, overthrew the 5th, and captured the base. Many soldiers died to take Warburg, and the name itself is a memorial to those fallen to take it.
After that, the island was settled. Arachnos continued to manufacture rockets under the isle, and perfected the VENOM Rocket sometime between 2000 and 2005. But, due to the recent events transpiring in America, Lord Recluse has turned a blind eye to Warburg, mainly because, apart from a Commercial and Warehouse area, did not really have any problems.
However, the Military Governor of Warburg, Marshall Brass, decided that Lord Recluse was weak, and didn't want to use the VENOM rockets at all. Somehow, he rallied the Garrison of Warburg, comprised of the second best Island Garrison (The first being Grandville) of the Rogue Isles, and broke off from Arachnos.
To retalliate, Lord Recluse sent a very small and weak division of Wolf Spiders to keep the Rogue Elements from thinking that Recluse really doesn't care about them (Which would probably lead to other Governors breaking off). But really, Lord Recluse could easily wipe the Rogue Elements from the Island. But he has a greater plan for it apparently.
Groups you forgot:
Shivans: These globs of extraterrestrial matter originated from a meteor discovered in the 70's by an Indian scientist. The meteor was enormous, around the size of Maine, and worst off, it was heading straight for Earth. The scientist named it Shiva, after the Hindu God(dess? I'm not sure 
) of Destruction. Relaying this info to the US Government, the US contacted the Freedom Phalanx to try to stop Shiva. (Note: The rest of this stuff I'm just making educated guesses on) The Phalanx sent Cassiopiea (A statue of her seen in Paragon City Hall) to destroy it. She succeeded, but not completely.
In the late 80's, Shiva finally came to earth... In the form of 6 small meteors that crashed on Bloody Bay. Most of the Islands population fled after the impact, many died from radiation poisoning brought by the meteors, and some lucky few survive to this day, but barely.
The Shivans themselves are globs of what appears to be radioactive goo. They can suck up biomatter (Be it trees, mold off rocks, or even the remains of humans) and use it to build somewhat crude forms. These forms, I can assume, seek out more biomatter to waste down and absorb.
Currently, the Shivans are being studied on Bloody Bay, although Dr. Aeon (Or possibly Prof. Echo) has recieved a number of them and is keeping them in a lab in Cap.
Spetznaz: They appear to be a meta-human merc group originating from the Soviet Union. They employ normal, altered, and meta-humans in their forces. Currently, their only prescence seems to be the reaquisition of one of their former scientists, Dr. Krylov.
Rogue Arachnos: Under the leadership of Marshall Brass, the former Elite Garrison of Warburg has broken off from Arachnos and is holding the VENOM rocket system, as well as the multitude of labs devoted to Arachnoid Research and Replication, hostage. They do employ Hercules Titans from Malta Group, in exchange for Arachnoids Data and the occasional nuke. Currently, it doesn't seem like Lord Recluse is all that interested in negotiations with Brass, but more or less to see his Destined Ones in action against Rogue Elements.
Corrections to Islands and Groups:
Sharkhead Island: Considered sacred to the Coralax, due to the "Leviathan" being trapped in here. The Leviathan is apparently an Avatar, so to speak, of the Coralax God. Also, the island houses an enormous undersea cavern that is the only place to find Red Coral Crystals. These Crystals are considered to be precious gems.
The Coralax control the island secretly in almost every way. Coralax collect garbage and slag, then implant Red Coral in them to animate the Slag Golems.
Coralax have controlled the Freaks of the Island into being their lackeys. Freaks create distractions for the Coralax, and the Coralax enjoy their caves.
Coralax sell Red Coral to the Circle of Thorns in return for protection. The Circle controls Crash Cage, the daughter of the CEO of Cage Consortium. And since Crash is the CEOs only living relative, he does almost anything she asks him to do.
Coralax also occasionally use proxies to sell Coral to Arachnos in return for sanctioning the Caves underneath Sharkshead to be untampered.
Nerva: The ruins here comprise the main fortress to the City of Mu (Which there is only one of, if I can properly remember). The Circle now use the Thorn Tree to tap into the energies of Mu's Defense Grid (Which I can assume must be immensely powerful). Arachnos and Longbow vie for control of the Archipelago, although main fighting is based on the jungle island of Primeva. There, the Circle and Devouring Earth battle out as well. Crey also is investigating ruins in the area, and Arachnos is studying Portal Tech found in the Area.
St Martial: You got everything right... Except you're ignoring the Flop, parts of the Black Mariah, and The Hard Way. The Flop is a sector of St. Martial that is under attack from Freaks, Tsoo, Family, and possibly Rogue Elements (But I think this is a bug. It seems like Arachnos would deploy Spiderlings to the area. Also, they skitter around the feet of Arachnos soldiers without any conflict so I can assume it is a bug.). Crab Spiders have been deployed en masse to the area in order to keep peace.
Parts of the Black Mariah (Shipping center of St. Martial) have been attacked by Devouring Earth. And the sector known as the Hard Way is in devastation. Freaks have trashed the entire area and the Wailers dwell in the ruins. An ENORMOUS pile of flaming debris sits in the center of the sample of what could happen if the Freaks grow in power.
Coralax: As evidenced above, they play a massive role as the Puppeteer of the Sharkhead Isle theatre. They worship the god Merulina, which crashed into the oceans of the Atlantic millenia ago. From her, the Coralax evolved, and she was a living god to them. However, only a few hundred years ago, Merulina refused to speak to the Coralax for an unknown reason. This caused the fracturing of the Coralax Civilization into many parts. The main part of the seperatists believe that Human intervention caused Merulina's silence. These seperatists openly attack and infect humans and transform them into Coralax Hybrids. Though considered lower in their caste system than pure Coralax, the Hybrids play an important role as warriors.
Another seperatist faction is the Blood of the Black Stream. These Coralax are very mysterious and not much is known about them, apart that they have an Egyptian-like architecture, are very dark and underworld-ish, are based in the Nile area, and probably play puppetmaster to the Gadzul Oil Company.
The Coralax's Priests, Shapers, are zealots to Merulina. One particular Shaper, known as Calystix, has had many appearances. His first documented appearance was in Rome, around 55 AD. He had assembled a cult of followers in Rome, before Praetorians slaughtered every last member of his Cult for refusing to follow the Emperor as a God. Calystix apparently survived, and his last appearance was in a New Hampshire fishing village in 1904 before the village mysteriously was abandoned.
All Coralax can control water bursts of various temperatures. Their standard issue weapon is a very-suggestive looking club. They also have prominent psychic powers (which is how they are able to control Freaks and other people). Also, evidence shows that the Coralax are a likely candidate for the Epic Villain AT.
Carnival of Shadows: They want more Souls. Simple as that. They appear to run a legitimate "carnival" business, but they seem to be low on visitors, mainly because there doesn't seem to be an exit out of the Carnival.
That's all I can think of now. More to come if I think of anything I missed.
CONTAINS SPOILERS
First, let me refer you to my favorite guide to the backstory, for those of you who haven't seen it, the Guide to Villain Backstories, a spoiler-rific summary of what we learn about all the CoH villain groups through the various story arcs and task forces, plus scattered NPC monologues and dialogs.
COV Plot Overview
All of the player characters are, defacto, in the same Villain Group, what everybody else calls the Destined Ones or Project Destiny. All of our various villain groups within that are no more distinct from Project Destiny than the various factions of the Freakshow are from each other, as far as the story line is concerned. As you surely known already because the subject has been beaten to death, one of Earth's few Incarnates (human beings with the power of an incarnate god), the evil Lord Recluse, took over the Italian fascist supervillain group Arachnos ages ago, staged a coup d'etat here in the Rogue Isles, and rules the isles as their monarch, through appointed governors of each of the islands. Each island (or in the case of PO/CaD, half of an island) has its own Big Story.
Mercy Island: The Snakes have an underground city and tunnel complex under the whole island, and have been there for at least 400 years, maybe longer. Every so often for that whole time, some superhero (usually religious/magical origin, in the past) has come along, wiped them off of the surface, and forced them down into the tunnels until they can hatch up enough of a population to retake the surface. Southern Mercy Island is in the middle of such an uprising now.
Port Oakes: Family headquarters for the Rogue Isles. The leader of the Family died recently, and two factions, the Marcone (Family) and Verandi (Mook) families, are fighting for control of the city and its port.
Cap au Diable: The city center, Aeon City, is the headquarters for perhaps Earth's wealthiest and most popular supervillain, an unscrupulous mad scientist member of Arachnos with a really, really effective PR department, Dr. Aeon. Dr. Aeon, while experimenting with geothermal power, found out that a late Renaissance priest bound an immense demon into the volcano, and Aeon's Power Transfer System is tapping magical energy out of that bound demon to power the whole Rogue Isles. Virtually everybody else is there to steal tech from Dr. Aeon or magic from the demon. Dr. Aeon has his own personal arch-nemesis, a time traveler named Professor Echo who is from an alternate dimension where the PTS has, in fact, destroyed the world, who has traveled here with his universe's now-repentant Dr. Aeon to prevent our Dr. Aeon from doing the same thing.
Sharkhead Isle: Half to 3/4 of the island is one big open-pit bauxite (aluminum ore) mine and the associated refinery/smelter, all under the control of one big private sector corporation, the Cage Consortium. Longbow has covertly stirred up a miner's strike in an attempt to paralyze the economy of the Isles. The Council, the Sky Raiders, and the Freakshow all have not-especially-hidden local HQs here, and the Circle of Thorns have a scary local research project going (see Circle of Thorns, below).
Nerva Archepelago: Longbow has invaded nearly all of the islands in this chain of islands, though they only thoroughly control two of them. Crey Corporation operates openly in the parts of the isles that are under Longbow control because, as in Paragon City, hardly anybody seems to realize that Crey are supervillains. In the northeast corner are two islands that are almost completely occupied by the Circle of Thorns, one of which controls their primary inter-dimensional portal and the other the mystical tree from which all of their Thorn weapons are harvested.
St. Martial: At least half of this vast island is taken up by various Family casinos, the largest of which is run by this universe's Frank Sinatra, Johnny Sonata. Everybody else is here to rip off or otherwise attack Johnny Sonata or the Family.
SO WHAT IS EVERYBODY DOING HERE?
Arachnos: The elite military forces of the Isles. Apparently at least one unit, in St. Martial, has mutinied and gone independent.
Longbow: The world's largest superhero group. Founded and funded and trained by Freedom Phalanx, and backed by their own huge private army of non-super mercenaries who wear mostly the same uniform that Freedom Phalanx's mercenary sidekicks wear, they've converged on the Rogue Isles en masse. They completely occupy a huge island base in Nerva, which they've renamed Agincourt, but they can be found literally everywhere underfoot in the Isles.
In some missions they hint that it's against US law for at least some super-heroes to be here helping them, but it does happen. In particular, they're backed by Freedom Phalanx member Aurora Borealis, and by their own superheroes Blue Phazer and Golden Sphinx, plus an entire corps of nameless lower-powered mutant superheroes with the rank of Longbow Warden.
Their short-term goal seems to be to prevent and/or respond to Arachnos or Destined One attacks on Paragon City, and to eventually overthrow Lord Recluse's government.
Wyvern: A private security/mercenary company initially funded, trained, and equipped by Manticore of Freedom Phalanx as a side project; they're here to do do work for hire for Longbow, and would like to keep that secret for some reason.
The Legacy Chain: An international alliance of magic-using superheroes, sort of like MAGI on an international level but much older. They're here because of the isles' high concentration of magic-using supervillains. They work with Wyvern and Longbow occasionally, and like Wyvern, seem to want to keep that secret.
Rogue Isles Police: Lightly armed civilian police in the Isles, mostly corrupt.
Private Security and Cage Consortium Security: Lightly armed rent-a-cops.
The Snakes: Taking back their home. If possible, stealing enough magic/tech to oust Lord Recluse as the leader of Arachnos and replace him with their own Incarnate leader and biological ancestor, Stheno.
The Infected Ones: Laboratory waste from top secret Arachnos research on the Arachnoids (see below) contains small amounts of a mutagen that the Infected are trying to take advantage of, by drinking it and bathing in it in hopes of obtaining superpowers of their own.
Hellions: Hired by an Egyptian oil company to come here to disrupt Family operations in the Dockside and Oil Spill neighborhoods of PO. They've discovered on their own the existence of the demon under Mt. Diable, and since it's a fire demon, their local leader wants to free it. (Note that that leader, Duke Mordrigor, seems to outrank every Hellion in Paragon City. Is this where their real world HQ is now, and is that why they're such weenies in Paragon City?)
Marcone Family: Gangsters fighting to retain control of all smuggling, money laundering, and casino operations in the Isles. Verandi/Mooks: Gangsters fighting to overthrow and replace the Marcone Family.
The Council: The Nictus and their human allies are everywhere, apparently, not just here and in Paragon City. Most NPCs suggest that Arachnos is tolerating them for now because he hasn't made up his mind what to do about them, and that the Family lets them run smuggling operations out of Port Oakes as long as they do it quietly. They don't seem to have any grand plan; other than using the Isles as a way-station on the smuggling route into and out of Paragon City, their people mostly just seem to be involved in petty crime.
Spectral Pirates: Trying to defend their home fortress in Port Oakes, because they don't seem to realize that they're dead and that the fort was taken over by living villains long ago.
Skulls and Trolls: Never explained, but since they're partners with the Family in the Superadine Connection, I assume that they're here because the Family runs Superadine through Port Oakes. But that doesn't explain why there are instanced Troll missions in Cap or big public gatherings of Skulls all over Mercy.
Lost/Rikti: During the Rikti war, the Rikti dug in everywhere, including here. The Outbreak drug and Shift (the real name of the previously un-named drug that turns humans into Rikti) are both manufactured in Port Oakes for export to the world. In Nerva, the Rikti are fighting back against Crey tech-thief raids. According to the Guide I referenced above, the Hydra are servants to the Rikti, but you only see them in one mission that I know of, and that one not in this dimension.
Circle of Thorns: Contrary to what we were told in Paragon City, the lost city of Oranbega wasn't that unique; there are underground Mu cities all over the world, including here. The ones in the Nerva Archipelago are especially important, though; see above. As in Paragon City, you start fighting these guys around level 5 or 6 and never stop. Their main goals in the Isles are to free an immense sea monster under Sharkhead as soon as they figure out how to control it; to fight against Crey, Arachnos, and Longbow for control of the Portal in Nerva; and to defend the Thorn Tree.
Coralax Hybrids: Pre-human undersea intelligent living coral beds from just offshore of the Rogue Isles that have taken over the bodies of various human beings. They've started coming ashore to scout the human beings whose pollution is threatening their survival, presumably as part of a plot to exterminate our kind. See also Freakshow, below.
Goldbrickers: A private army of tech-thieves, mostly stealing from Aeon Corporation, secretly working for the CEO of the local candy company. No, really, it's that lame, I'm not making this up.
Luddites: Protesters, including some magic users, who suspect the truth about the Power Transfer System (PTS) and are trying to convince people that Aeon's power grid is too dangerous, and could destroy the whole human race. Considering the fact that most people consider Dr. Aeon to be a brilliant philanthropist, nobody listens. Other than to aggravate low level villains, they're mostly here for comic relief.
Vahzilok: Most of the local Vahzilok are not actually under Dr. V's control, but under the control of one of his competitors, a local mad scientist named Facemaker.
Clockwork: Actually, they're not here, in the sense that the Clockwork King's telekinesis doesn't reach this far. The demon under Mt. Diable is animating various Clockwork and fragments that were brought here for study. In essence, they're the same beings as the Gremlins that you see around PTS transformers in CaD.
Tsoo: Occasionally seen in petty crimes (newspaper missions), with no explanation of why they're here, what they want, or where they're locally headquartered.
Sky Raiders: They're running some independent operations trying to steal tech from Aeon Corporation and Crey, but mostly they're here as mercenaries, hired by the relatively wealthier population of Sharkhead, who live in the one nice neighborhood, to protect them from the Circle and the Scrapyarders. As mercenaries, they also run some operations both for and against Arachnos.
Scrapyarders: Striking employees of the Cage Consortium, but they have no intention of going back to work if their demands are met; they're actually an undercover front for Longbow. It's not clear to me yet if the same thing is going on with the striking Dockworkers in St. Martial.
Crey Corporation: Countess Crey sends her people anywhere they can get away with accumulating more high tech supervillain gear for her, and the Rogue Isles in general and Nerva in particular are very handy to her purposes because the law is so murky here. They're conducting human experiments on every captured supervillain they can get their hands on (and not a few Rikti monkeys) in those sheds behind their office buildings, but mostly what they're here for is because it's even easier to get away with illegally hoarding and studying Rikti tech here than it is back in Paragon City. Note that at least one of your Crey contacts is almost certainly a Rikti double-agent inside the company.
Freakshow: Mostly the Freaks are just here to steal from the various tech supervillains. Their local headquarters is in a junkyard in Sharkhead Isle, but you find them all over Sharkhead, Nerva, and St. Martial. A substantial faction of the Freaks have been taken over psychically by or are voluntarily working with the Coralax.
Nemesis: Prince Nemesis runs a small handful of spy operations in the Isles, mostly to collect information on Crey and Arachnos, but also to interfere with both organizations' attempts to control the inter-dimensional portal in Nerva. He also has at least one front organization here just to "launder" his patents and collect royalties, presumably because it's easier for him to get away with it here.
Wailers: A sub-species of demons here to collect Johnny Sonata's soul, as part of the deal that made him the world's wealthiest and most famous singer. Much of the architecture of the Golden Giza casino in St. Martial is designed to keep them at bay.
Devouring Earth: We are given to understand that Hamidon's creatures have begun to infest every nation on the Earth; the local outbreak is on the beaches of St. Martial.
Carnival of Shadows: I think, at this point, that I've run every Carnival mission there is or very nearly, and spent plenty of time sneaking around their huge encampment in St. Martial, and I'm at a total loss as to why they're here (unless it's just because they're attracted by the casinos), or, even more importantly, how they're here. Surely Vanessa di Vore's telepathic control can't extend this far, can it?
Banished Pantheon and Warriors: Only appear in one mission each, each of which is backstory related to their existing story arcs back in Paragon City.
Malta Group: Is there any surprise that the CIA's own pet superhero/supervillain group is sniffing around Lord Recluse's suspected orbital weapons of mass destruction research facility in Warburg?
Arachnoids: Either an alien species or a species of human mutants, or perhaps some weird cross between the two; nobody knows much about them, but they fascinate Lord Recluse, which is why you see their corpses being studied in almost every Arachnos lab and is presumably why he modeled his Crab Spider troops' armored exoskeletons after them. (Crey is also studying them.)